Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane, Australia, reads the Sept. 19 issue of the Italian journal La Civilta Cattolica while attending the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications at the Vatican. The Sept. 19 edition of the Jesuit journal contains a 12,000 word interview with Pope Francis in which he calls for a "new balance" between proclaiming salvation and teaching morality. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

As the dust slowly begins to
settle from last week’s papal
interview earthquake, complaints have begun to surface from bishops and other
Church officials about what they perceive as a lack of communication regarding the
interview’s release. Many Vatican communication officials knew nothing about
the interview until they had to field media inquiries from reporters after its
publication, according
to John Allen:

In an especially
juicy irony, the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Social Communications 
arguably, its primary think tank for communications strategy  was conducting
its plenary assembly last Thursday, the day the interview appeared, and
virtually no one taking part had any idea it was coming. …

In
the middle of a working session, participants in the plenary assembly suddenly
found themselves distracted by vibrations and alerts on their iPhones and
BlackBerrys as news of the interview broke. …

Most
senior Vatican officials, including some of its top communications personnel,
also did not have advance notice. That’s especially striking given that CiviltÀ Cattolica enjoys semi-official status and is
typically read by the Vatican’s Secretariat of State prior to publication.

In
this case, however, editors reportedly decided that since they had direct papal
approval of the text, there was no need to pass the interview through the
normal channels.

Speaking
on background, some bishops who happened to be in Rome last week expressed
irritation that a handful of secular media outlets apparently had advance
copies of the interview, but not them.

One
prelate told NCR that he began getting phone calls from reporters seeking
comment on Thursday, before he even knew that an interview existed, and
felt ambushed.

Allen points out the near-impossibility of distributing advance
copies to the world’s 5,000 or so bishops without having parts of the interview
leaked, which could have led to even more out-of-context quotations and highly misleading
early media reports.

Our Sunday Visitor
publisher Greg Erlandson was at the plenary assembly in Rome last week when the
news broke, and
describes the scene:

It appears that hardly any bishops had a head's
up that this was coming. News organizations had advance copies that were
embargoed. That means that they promised not to publish anything before 11 a.m.
EDT.

The
result is that at roughly 11:10, the news alerts started coming: CNN Breaking
news alert: "Pope Francis says religion does not have the right to
interfere spiritually in the lives of gays and lesbians." New York Times
news alert: "Pope Bluntly Faults Church's Focus on Gays and Abortion."

And as
quick as you can say "Gotcha," bishops and communications directors
were suddenly fielding interview requests for a story they had not seen and
were unprepared for.

Erlandson concludes: “Communications is tough these days, but
self-inflicted wounds are really inexcusable. And even with a sense of humor,
such self-inflicted wounds still make one want to cry.”

Father James Martin, SJ, who serves as
editor-at-large for America, tweeted
earlier today: “Since people were curious: Key USCCB officials
and bishops, and the Vatican spokesperson, were given advanced notice of our
papal interview.” America’s
editor-in-chief, Father Matt Malone, SJ, also used
Twitter to thank “the messengers & USPS who got early copies of the
interview to key Bishops, officials & peers in the Catholic Press.”

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